Bottle carrier



S. N. LEBOLD BOTTLE CARRIER June 26, 1951 Filed Jan. 8, 1948 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 S. N. LEBOLD BOTTLE CARRIER June 26, 1951 Filed Jan. 8, 1948 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 H v 221 El y Z3 I 22 I I6 'I C I i 'l MwW/U WAM June 26, 1951 s. N. LEBOLD 2,553,613

BOTTLE CARRIER Filed Jan. 8, 1948 3 Sheets-Sheet a INVENTOR.

Patented June 26, 1951 I 2,558,618 BOTTLE cAnnma Samuel N. Lebold, Chicago, 111., assignor to Morris Paper Mills, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application January 8, 1948, Serial No. 1,236

Claims.

1 The subject of this invention is an improved article carrier or portable container, of the type commonly employed in transporting bottled beverages, which is fabricated from paper board stock. In particular, the invention pertains to a carrier of this type which is suspended for transportation by means of a separate, preformed handle of wire or other relatively rigid material, which handle is associated with the container portion of the carrier, in accordance with the invention, in a novel and improved manner.

The invention deals with paper board bottle carriers of the type illustrated and described in the patent to Arneson No. 2,345,565, of April 4, 1944. Carriers of this type are constructed from a one-piece paper board blank folded and creased to enable the same to be quickly erected without the use of adhesive to an erected, operative condition. In this condition the carrier has a triangular shape in cross section and is provided with a pair of spaced openings along the longitudinally extending apex thereof through which the supporting lugs of a bail-type handle are received to suspend the carrier and its contearing efiect on the carrier, particularly upon re-use, by reason of the stress imposed by said lugs on the single thickness apex line along and under which they engage. This may become so pronounced as to result in failure following repeated re-use or rough treatment of the loaded carrier.

It is therefore a general object of the invention to provide an inexpensive paper board carrier for bottles or like articles of the foregoing type, characterized by inclined, convergent side walls or panels and a central apex at the junction thereof which is supportingly engaged by a handle member, which carrier embodies novel provisions for substantially reinforcing the same adjacent said apex, whereby to possess increased resistance to tearing stress imparted by the handle.

A more specific object is to provide a carrier construction of the foregoing type including re- Yet another object is to provide a bottle or like carrier of the type described, including integral reinforcing elements foldable to operative reinforcing relation underlying the apex or meeting line of a pair of side panels of the carrier, which elements are adapted to be readily and quickly disposed in said operative position while the carrier is being erected and are provided with means to enable their frictional retention in said position until and while a separate handle member is engaged therewith.

The foregoing statements are indicative in a general way of the nature of the invention, but other and more specific objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon a full understanding of the construction and operation of the device.

Two embodiments of the invention are presented herein for purpose of exemplification, but it will be appreciated that the invention is susceptible of incorporation in other modified forms coming equally within the scope of the appended claims.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a plan view illustrating a, blank from which an article carrier in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention is constructed;

Fig. 2 is a plan view illustrating the blank of Fig. 1 following manipulation of certain parts thereof during the operation of erecting the carrier;

Fig. 3 is a view in side elevation, partially broken away and sectioned, illustrating the coaction of the relationship of the reinforced apex of the carrier, in the erected condition of the latter, with a separate, relatively rigid handle member;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view in vertical transverse section along a line generally corresponding to line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view in vertical, longitudinal section on line 5-5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a plan view illustrating a somewhat.

modified adaptation of the invention to a bottle carrier of greater capacity than that represented in Figs. 1 through 5;

Fig. '7 is a view generally similar to Fig. 2 showing the blank of Fig. 6 with portions in folded position;

Fig. 3 is a view in side elevation, partially broken away and sectioned showing the operative relationship of the handle and the multiple ply reinforcing elements of the modified type carrier; and

Fig. 9 is a view in transverse section along line 9-8 of Fig. 8, further illustrating structural details of the carrier and handle, and their relationship.

Referring to Figs. 1 through 5, the reference numeral Ill generally designates a died out blank of inexpensive grade of flexible paper board or cardboard from which the present bottle carrler, which is of the .general type shown in the above identified Arneson patent, is constructed. This blank is cut and creased to provide a pair of generally similar side panels II, II, flexibly conjoined to one another along a medial crease line l2, and provided with end panels l3. Said panels subdivided by the angular divergent creases l4 and by an extension l2 of medial crease l2 into generally triangular end-forming walls l5 and flexibly connected triangular tuck flaps or portions I 6. In order to facilitate initial inward folding -of the walls l5 and flaps It to their operative position, the blank is provided with small apertures I! on said extensions l2 and immediately adjacent the creased margins l8 by which panels 13 are flexibly conjoined to the side walls ll.

Crease line i2 is also provided with handle receiving apertures I9 equally spaced inwardly from the creases l8, said apertures being adapted to receive a separate bail-type wire suspending handle such as is illustrated in Figs. 3, 4 and 5 and designated by the reference numeral 20. This handle carries in-turned lugs 2| adapted to engage beneath the apex at which side walls ll meet, represented by the medial line l2.

Each of the side walls is appropriately slitted and creased to provide a set of flaps which are normally disposed in the plane of the side wall, in the condition of the carrier prior to use, and which are bendable downwardly and internally of the latter to subdivide the interior of the container portion of the carrier. In the case of one of the side walls, the set of flaps include the identical, spaced end flaps 22 flexibly conjoined to the wall along hinge lines 23, a pair of intermediate flaps 24 in the intervening space which are hinged to the side wall at 25 and adapted to be swung inwardly, so as to subdivide the internal volume of the carrier into three article receiving cells on a side of its central plane, and a third intermediate tongue 25 hinged to the carrier wall at 21.

The set of flaps on the other side wall is generally similar, but certain thereof are somewhat modified in shape and in other details; hence the corresponding parts will be indicated by similar reference numerals primed. Thus, the flaps 22'v are of somewhat lesser length than flaps 22, for

a purpose to be described. They are provided with crease lines 28 which parallel their hinge lines 23' and are located the same distance from said hinge lines as the distance the latter are spaced from medial crease l2. Holes 29 are provided on the fold lines 28 at locations having the same spacing as the apertures l9 from the marginal creases Ill.

The object of the above provisions, it will be perceived, is to insure that when flaps 22' are folded upon hinge lines 23, the respective holes 29 and creases 28 will come into register with and overlie the apertures 19 and medial crease l3, and that the portions of flaps 22 on either side of fold line 28 will lie in superposed contact with the respective panels I I on opposite sides of medial crease l2. Yet the shortened length of are swung internally of the carrier interior, bottie-receiving apertures are exposedin the side walls II for the reception of the contents to be transported and the interior of the carrier is subdivided roughly into rows of article receiving spaces on either side of the apex 12. However. in the present invention the flaps 22' serve a further purpose, as will be described.

The blank of Fig. 1 is completed by the bottomforming panel 30, flexibly conjoined by fold line 3| to the outer or bottom margin of one of the side walls, and by locking flaps 32 flexibly conjoined along line 33 to the opposite margin of the other side wall. These last named flaps carry locking ears 34 which are receivable in a slot 35 in the bottom 30 to hold the carton in the erected condition thereof, which is shown in Fig. 3.

In setting up the carrier the flaps 22' are first swung about their respective hinges 23' to overlying relation to medial crease 12. The inwardly directed lugs 2! of the separate wire handle 20 are then successively inserted in the respective openings afforded by the superposed or registering apertures l9, 29,.as by bending the blank in the fashion illustrated and described in the Arneson patent. This locates said lugs in underlying relation to a double thickness of material at themedial line l2, so that upward tearing stress subsequently applied thereto when the carrier is completed, loaded and suspended by the handle is effectively resisted. End forming walls l5 and tuckflaps I6, of the end panels I3 are then folded inwardly around lines l2, H and I8 while the side walls ll being brought toward one another about the medial line I 2, so as to place the side walls in the upwardly convergent relationship shown in Fig. 4. The bottom locking flaps 32 are next engaged in slot 35 of bottom 30 to hold the carrier in a triangular sectional shape without the use of adhesive or any other fastening means.

The apex at- H of the thus erected carrier is greatly reinforced by the infolded reinforcing flaps 22' for engagement by the handle lugs 2| and the frictional engagement of these flaps, on opposite sides of the line 23', with the respective side walls ll effectively resists displacement when the carrier is not suspended. The remaining flaps 2|, 2!, 26, 26' are available as inwardly extending dividing elements for the carrier interior.

The embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figs. 6 through 9 possesses all of the advantages of the construction just described. It difl'ers therefrom mainly in that a carrier of 12-bottle capacity is involved, rather than a six-bottle carrier. Accordingly for the purpose of sima plicity, similar reference numerals have been employed to designate parts which are structurally or functionally the same as those appearing in Figs. 1 through 5.

It should be particularly noted that, in the embodiment in Figs. 6 through 9, the hinge lines 36 for the innermost pairs of reinforcing flaps 31, cut from the material of the side walls, are disposed at an angle to the medial crease line or apex l2 and that the intermediate flap fold lines said flaps avoids their hindering the free swing- 1. .33 are also angled relative to said apex. The

purpose of this is to insure that the holes 39 in said fold lines fall into register with the apertures IS on line 12. Such disposition is necessary in view of the fact that said apertures iii are positioned more widely apart than the extreme limits of flaps 31; and this is in turn by reason of the greater capacity of the carrier and a somewhat different cutting 'of its side walls to receive bottles.

The manipulation of the blank for the augmented capacity carrier in setting up the same is identical with that involved in the form of Figs. 1 through 5, and the completed carrier is shown clearly in Figs. 8 and 9, particularly in the relation of the separate handle member and its lugs 2| to the paper board body of the carrier.

I am aware that those skilled in the art will perceive the possibility of altering the structure shown and described in a manner to accomplish the purposes encompassed thereby and I therefore desire that the invention be construed no more limitedly than is reasonably consistent with the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A closed top type bottle carrier of flexible fibrous material comprising a container having upwardly exposed, upwardly extending side walls each provided with a set of bottle receiving holes and tabs cut from the material of and hingedly connected to said side walls, said tabs normally covering said bottle receiving holes and certain thereof being swingable inwardly and upwardly of the container and into engagement with the top of the container between saidsets of holes, said tabs being of suflicient length to transversely overlie the center line of the container between said sets of holes when so positioned, said container top having handle accommodating holes located adjacent said center line in the zone of said inswung tabs, and a bail type handle receivable in said holes and including means underlying and upwardly engaging said tabs when the container is suspended from the handle.

2. An article carrier comprising a container portion having opposed, upwardly convergent wall panels connected to one another adjacent the apex of convergence thereof, and provided with spaced holes adjacent said apex, said panels being provided with cuts defining article receiving openings therein and tab elements integrally and bendably connected thereto and normally lying in said openings, said tab elements being foldable from their normal position inwardly of the container portion and upwardly toward said apex, said tab elements being of sufilcient length from the line of fold to the free edge thereof and being so disposed as to transversely intersect said apex and lie adjacent said hole when folded, and a bail type handle having supporting elements disposed v in said holes and underlying said tab elements in engagement with the latter when the container portion is suspended from said handle.

3. An article carrier comprising a container portion having opposed, upwardly convergent walls connected to oneanother adjacent the apex of convergence thereof, and provided with spaced holes adjacent said apex, said walls being provided with cuts defining article receiving openings therein and tab elements integrally and bendably connected thereto and normally lying in said openings, said tab elements being foldable from their normal position inwardly of the container portion and upwardly toward said apex, said tab elements being of suflicient length from the line of fold to the free edge thereof and being so disposed as to transversely intersect said apex and lie adjacent said hole when so folded, and a bail type handle having supporting elements disposed in said holes and underlying said tab elements in engagement with the latter when the container portion is suspended from said handle, said tab elements being creased in register with said apex to permit folding therebeneath and having internal wedging engagement with said walls on opposite sides of the apex to retain the tab elements in place when so folded.

4. An article carrier comprising a container portion having opposed, upwardly convergent wall panels connected to one another adjacent the apex of convergence thereof and provided with spaced holes adjacent said apex, said panels being provided with cuts defining article receiving openings therein and tab elements integrally and bendably connected thereto and normally lying in said openings, said tab elements being foldable from their normal position inwardly of the container portion and upwardly toward said apex, said tab elements being of suflicient length from the line of fold to the free edge thereof and being so disposed as to transversely intersect said apex and lie adjacent said hole when folded, and a bail-type handle having supporting elements disposed in said holes and underlying said tab elements in engagement with the latter when the container portion is suspended from said handle.

5. A bottle carrier of flexible fibrous material comprising a container having upwardly convergent side walls each provided with a set of bottle receiving openings and tabs hingedly connected to said side walls, saidtabs normally lying in certain of said openings and being swingable on the hinges thereof inwardly and toward the apex of convergence of said walls into engagement with the latter, and being of sufiicient length to transversely overlie the apex when so positioned, said apex having longitudinally spaced handle accommodating holes therein located adjacent said tabs, said handle accommodating holes being adapted for the reception of a bail type handle to position the latter for upward engagement with said tabs when the container is suspended from the handle.

SAMUEL N. LEBOLD.

file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Number Arneson Apr. 4, 1944 

